Thankful

Most are posting every day what they are thankful for this month.  It is the most popular month to give thanks and count your many blessings, after all.  I'm breaking from the norm and will post at the end of the month.  (I'm a bit of a daredevil :) )

1.  Cooler temperatures!  And rain!
2.  The power of prayer.  And Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
3.  My job.  It's crazy sometimes, but it's totally awesome.
4.  My husband for stepping in and taking over when I need it and knowing when to do it.
5.  Working with my father.  And Peggy.  And Cheryl.
6.  Great friends who love to hug your neck as much as you love to hug theirs.
7.  Early bedtimes.
8.  Random strangers who comment on how freaking adorable Luke is.
9.  Thankful for my little boy.  He's pretty amazing.
10.  Bug spray.  And lots of it :)
11.  Watching Luke learn new tricks (he's sitting himself up from laying down without any assistance!)
12.  Chris' job.  And the insurance it provides.
13.  Saturday's
14.  The mother's lounge at church.  And church.
15.  My patients.  And my patience.
16.  Luke's curiosity
17.  Music.  It's amazing how the right song can help your mood.
18.  Our pediatrician.  And his staff.
19.  Family.  Brothers, SILs, parents, aunts, uncles, nephews...everyone.
20.  A Hog win!!  WPS!!!
21.  Cough medicine.
22.  Nasal bulb syringes and infant tylenol.
23.  The drive to and from work.
24.  Piles of toys in the living room.
25.  Family gatherings with lots of food!!

With all of these, we are truly blessed.  We have amazing family, friends who are always there at just the right times, jobs to provide for our son (and the dog),  and a solid roof over our head (and if there's any problem with that, we have the hook up from a great friend who can fix it).

We are definitely counting our blessings, and this was our attempt to name them one by one (at least just a few)...

9 months

18 pounds, 5 ounces

26.5 inches long

You've only grown 1 inch since your 6 month check and your head circumference hasn't changed a bit.  You have gained about 3 pounds, tho :O)

We already have your 1 year checkup scheduled.  I can't believe it!!

fyi

Luke can sit up all by himself.  As in, he'll be rolling around the room and voila, he's sitting up.  It's like he's been doing it his entire life.  And he's super proud of this achievement.

He can also army crawl, which has prompted a household baby proofing afternoon.  Consider it a success...for now.

My little brother is married.  Yes, you read that right.  Her name is Jackie...short for Jacquelyn (at least that's how I think you spell it).  I met her once for about 20 minutes and she seems nice.  I'm still trying to cope with this...

I have a 9 foot pre lit Christmas tree for sale.  Please buy it.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  Which means Christmas is right around the next corner.  And then my son will be 1 by the time I pack up the Christmas tree.  Help.

We have been crazy busy these last 5 weeks, I'm looking forward to being a homebody for a while.

Hope you all have a great week.  I'm going to try my darndest, but I have a feeling I'm going to have a come to Jesus talk with the printers and the furniture store.  Pray for them...

Letter to Baby

Baby Luke,

You are 9 months old today.  9 months and counting.  What do you think about that?  I bet you think it's pretty neat.  You've got so much to explore to learn, you might not even know that this a kind of a big deal!

You've got a 9 month appointment with the pediatrician in a couple weeks, so we'll see what you're official stats are then, but your dad stepped on the scale with you and we guesstimate you're roughly 17 pounds.  That means that your dad and I have to trade off quite a bit when we carry you in somewhere.  We haven't quite adjusted to your chunkiness...we still remember when you were little :)

You're fitting into 6-12 month tops and 3-6 month bottoms for the most part.  You can wear some 9 month Carter bottoms, but it really just depends on the brand.  I cleaned out your closet over the weekend and put away your summer clothes.  Yes, it's November 3rd and you've been wearing shorts and t-shirts up until this point.  We had a couple of cool days, but it looks like you're in long sleeves and pants to stay.  I did keep out just a couple of t-shirts...you know, just in case.

Upon cleaning out your closet, I filled an entire 71 qt tub.  Filled.  As in, shoved clothes in cracks and crevasses that might not have existed to the naked eye.  Holy moly, you had some serious amounts of clothes little one.  I might've been able to clothe all the 3-6 month boys in a small 3rd world country with what you had.

But onto more fun things - like how you cry when I set you down to play so I can get something done, but as soon as I'm out of sight you're fine.  And then, like magic, once I reappear, so do the tears.  You sure know how to tug at your momma's heart strings!

You've figured out that rolling is way of transportation.  You.roll.everywhere.  I helped your dad make dinner a few nights ago, and I left you sitting up on your play mat.  Just a few minutes passed before I checked on you from the kitchen, and you had rolled across the room and under the end table.  And then you cried because I picked you up and moved you back to your mat.  It made me laugh :)

It'll be any day now and you'll be crawling.  You can go from sitting, to all fours, and then flat on your tummy, but you only end up on your tummy because you haven't figured out how to move both your arm and leg all at the same time.  You can rock back and forth on all fours, but moving on all of them is still just out of reach.  Hence the rolling.

You've discovered your reflection in the mirror.  I don't know if you know it's you, but you sure think that baby in the mirror is awfully awesome!  You grin from ear to ear and stick out your tongue.  It's great stuff to see.  I just love watching you examine that baby in the mirror...too cute!

You've been to your very first Razorback football game (we beat Ole' Miss and that mean old Houston Nutt, too) and you did great!  We even got you to sleep in guest services for about 30 minutes.  Just enough to recharge your battery and go back to the game.  We didn't stay for the whole game because of the threat of rain (and boy did it rain after we left), but I think lots of Hog football games are in our future!  Go Hogs!!  You've also been to your very first War Eagle Craft Fair and celebrated your very first Halloween!  Lots of firsts this past month, baby!

You're a pretty fun little guy to be around and I don't think we could ask for a more amazing son.

We love your guts.
Mom and Dad

competition

Sometimes on Sunday, Chris and I babysit our 3 year old nephew Jude while my SIL and 5 yo nephew Grant go to violin lessons.  (Side note: Jude calls his brother 'my Grant'.  too cute!!)

Yesterday was one of those Sundays.  We have a little tricycle that was given to us and Jude loves to ride it.  He also prefers to wear Chris' big helmet, leaving Chris with my little helmet...with 'Princess Clare' written across the front :)  While they were riding, Jude started talking about 'my Grant plays the violin, I want a trumpet'.  I asked him what he wanted to ask Santa for Christmas, and of course, he said a trumpet.  Now, I play the saxophone, as well as Chris, so I thought I'd show him ours before he completely made up his mind.  You know, some healthy competition between the woodwind and brass families.

I mean, trumpets are nice and all, but saxophones are cool, too!

So I dug out my alto saxophone, Jude sat down next to me in the garage, watched me pull it out and piece it all together.  When it was all set up he looked at me with those deep brown eyes and super long eyelashes and said 'that's not a trumpet!'.

He was not impressed and made it very clear he wanted a trumpet.  What's a saxophone girl to do?  Admit defeat, that's what!

Brass: 1  Woodwind: 0

Maybe I can talk Luke into playing the sax...